A Break from the Drought (Warriors 102, Bulls 87)

Three pointers aren’t just the Warriors’ identity, they’re the team’s life blood. When the threes fall, the floor opens up, the ball begins to move and Warriors other than Stephen Curry begin to score. On Thursday night against Chicago, the Warriors found their range again, connecting for 11 of 22 behind the arc. It was enough to overcome the absence of David Lee and Andrew Bogut — and may have been in part because of their absence, as Jackson played with a stretch-four for much of the night. While it was encouraging to see the Warriors finally make some shots, an offense predicated on making a high percentage of low-percentage shots isn’t exactly a recipe for consistency.

After Tuesday’s debacle, Mark Jackson issued his usual statements about not panicking and sticking with “the process.” Circumstances intervened either to force Jackson’s hand or given him cover for changes he had publicly dismissed. He sat David Lee, obviously not 100% for the past week, and Andrew Bogut, who didn’t look like himself for much of the Charlotte loss. While allowing his frontcourt to heal is a worthy end in itself, Jackson’s move also gave field promotions to two players in need of more minutes for opposite reasons.

Draymond Green got the starting nod and logged 27 minutes, his highest total since December 15. Green deserved the extra run given his consistently excellent energy, and held his ground fairly well against repeated attempts by the Bulls to exploit his lack of size. His hustle, particularly in the second and third quarters, was instrumental to the Warriors’ stabilization and eventual surge ahead. Even when Lee returns, Green deserves more minutes in Jackson’s system. While his individual offense remains limited, his overall game helps create better looks for the Warriors in a variety of ways — whether through takeaways, sharp passing or offensive rebounding.

Harrison Barnes needed more minutes to re-establish any sort of rhythm. His first half was typically rough (0-5 from the field), but his energy seemed to improve as his time on the court extended. In the second half, Barnes came on strong — hitting several big shots in the fourth quarter and generally looking like a more functional part of the offense, rather than simply a dead end. He still has a long way to go, but his performance against Chicago at least put an end to his recent freefall.

While quality performances from members of the Warriors’ bench crew helped at the margin, at the heart of the Warriors’ come from behind win was long-range shooting. The Warriors are a jump-shooting team — as Charles Barkley always reminds national TV audiences — and they finally got back to hitting their jump shots. A few things, beyond the usual statistical flutter, may have helped with the recovery.

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By swapping Lee — who has largely lost the ability to hit anything outside of 10 feet — for players that command defensive attention along the perimeter, like Barnes and Jordan Crawford, the Warriors raised the cost of mobbing Stephen Curry with help defenders. The logic applies even more to Bogut, who for all his positive impacts on the game has been a lost cause on offense. When Jackson opted for Green at center late in the second quarter, the Bulls suddenly had some risk at every defensive assignment. Every high pick-and-roll was a potential three-point shooter wide open near the ball. The extra incentive to stay home gave Curry all the room he needed to catch fire. How hot Curry gets when he’s getting single coverage — even if it’s solid coverage, like Kirk Hinrich — is a good reminder for what a dominant offensive player he has become. Curry’s 16-point explosion in just over 7 minutes was the turning point of the game, jolting the Warriors out of their first quarter sluggishness and forcing the Bulls to adapt on defense.

While Curry single-handedly jump-started the Warriors in the second quarter, his teammates responded in the second half. With Bogut and Lee out of the line-up, Klay Thompson seemed to have more space to work on his mid-range game. Instead of simply bombing away on catch-and-shoot threes, he was able to probe the defense a bit and connect on a variety of looks. Thompson’s bounce-back game doesn’t mean that he’s doomed to fail if the Warriors play big. But it does mean that Jackson needs to find ways to re-create the type of space Thompson found against the Bulls when he has his usual starting line-up. Thompson also needs to take responsibility and show more movement off the ball and aggressiveness when its in his hands.

So, with the Warriors finally getting back in the win column, does Mark Jackson get a reprieve from recent criticism? Not yet. While there were encouraging signs (a timeout to stop a first quarter run!), it’s not clear this result could be repeated against other teams. The Bulls have very little front-court offense, but Taj Gibson bulled his way to 26 points. A well-established post player would have done far more damage, and helped the Bulls avoid some of the offensive dry spells that killed them. At the other end, if the Warriors had shot closer to their season average from behind the arc — instead of 50% — this game very well could have been a loss. There was no suggestion in the Warriors’ performance that they are diversifying their offense, getting to the rim more or earning more trips to the line. They essentially doubled-down on the strategy that had been failing — long-range jumpers — and earned a big pay-out for their gamble.

Adam Lauridsen

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Sigh… Every time I watch AI shoot free throws, I’m baffled. How can an NBA player- especially one who is actually allowed to (and good enough to) shoot three pointers- not shoot free throws better than me (and no doubt most of us)? In fact, I’ll never fully understand why there are so many NBA players who can’t hit 70%.

El Topo

So Crawford shooting well, playing well pulled after 8 mins by the “flow” coach? Why?

SJ Jim

No offense, but the rah rah stuff is completely useless here. Bring us something. Fair?

Zume

Harrison with 15 points on 6-8 shooting.

SJ Jim

He’s waking up! I hate isos in general, but he’s making his work right now.

SJ Jim

Dragic is still a Warrior-slayer.

El Topo

JON played like his age.

Dubs fan then and now

Front office.. We’ve seen enough already! This team needs more bigs, more size, some rebounding and someone who can post up…. Otherwise it will be a disappointing playoffs

El Topo

Believewhat and Sartre,

OT…but that was one hella exciting finish to that Test. India to be commended for their fighting spirit, almost pulled off an incredible win.

El Topo

Our best 2 bigs are hurt. Where do you suggest FO can get one or two?

El Topo

Unless at least 1 of our bigs returns, we might even lose to Philly. Oh, the horror!

JanG

This Suns team is very impressive. They have no real stars yet they’ve managed to cobble together a bunch of late first rounders, journeymen, and euros to play excellent team ball. And they have 4 first round picks this year! I don’t believe they are better than the W’s but on this night, they shot well, got to the line, and outrebounded the W’s. No games are easy anymore!

Believewhat

Not for dubs. Dubs need that edge to win any game and can’t expect to get that edge 82 games

Ken Stuart

Actually, the exact same stat is true for Kobe, at least in recent years. One player getting a huge number of points does not win trophies, as demonstrated by Lebron at Cleveland.

rio kid

PPG is the most important stat in the NBA. This is coming from a Bulls
fan, I know the importance of defense and rebounding. But I don’t care
how good of a defender Iguodala is. When he averages 9 points a game, 9
out of 10 times the player he’s defending is going to outscore him.
That’s called getting outplayed.

Iguodala has always been an
overrated player and I thought it was a terrible signing for GS the
moment they did it. And guess what? I WAS RIGHT. Did it put them over
the hump? Make them contenders? Are they even better than last year?
No… All it did was lock up money and limit the development of Harrison
Barnes.

Igduodala is worth half his contract. 7-8 million a
year would be a good price for him. He does a lot of things well, but
players like him are a dime a dozen. He’s not a game changer.

Note: This is a quote of of some web site talking about trade option for the Ws. It stated that only Bogut and Curry were untouchable…Anyway I am an Iguadola fan but I have the following :

1. Is Dre too expensive for what her brings?
2. Is he stunting Barnes’ dev?
3. Are we better with him? ( I’d say yes)
4. A 7th seed rarely does a champion make…what needs to happen?

rio kid

Yes but I think there is more he can do and more he will do. He has made an important change to his game by attacking the paint more frequently and more effectively. He will continue this and score more in the paint and from the line; he will also help the flow and distrbution of points by getting team mates easy looks.

He is better than last year and has a little further to go in his journey

rio kid

Yeah, with Jack I guess be careful what you wish for…that team sounds like a train wreck.

coltraning

Rough run for Cleveland, and they have partially made their own bed. I mean, when you have the greatest basketball player on the planet for 7 years, you might want to bring in better talent to surround him than Mo Williams or Boobie Gibson!

Airbus01

or he’s playing like a guy who recently recovered from wrist surgery

Believewhat

rio,

You are not the only who have been saying things like every player should win their matchup in terms of scoring. It ain’t that simple, if it it is starting 5 will have everyone average 20PPG, there is a reason that never happened. Basketball is much more than scoring though I understand you are saying this because you have seen Chicago struggle to score so much. For warriors, scoring is never an issue even when it was a lottery team. We need versatile players who can do atleast two of the following

* Scoring
* Rebounding
* Passing
* Defense

Lee’s absence creates void in scoring but we didn’t lose Suns game because of scoring but because of rebounding. Dubs scored 109 but were outrebounded like by 15.

As per Dre, agree he need to give atleast some scoring and last game he scored 12pts on 5-9 shooting. He is too talented to average less than 12PPG anyway you look at it but dubs should be able to win just with his defense and presence given so many guys in the team who can score. Coaches should draw plays to get few easy baskets using athletism of Dre and Barnes but so far we have not seen that.